Open Gaming Collective: Developers aim to advance gaming on Linux

Several members of the Linux community are joining forces to advance gaming on the open-source operating system. The goal of the Open Gaming Collective project group is to develop a gaming-focused kernel to replace existing isolated solutions and standardize gaming on Linux.

The group includes Universal Blue, the team behind the gaming Linux Bazzite, as well as Asus Linux and PikaOS. As part of the Open Gaming Collective, they want to bundle components such as kernel patches, input tools, and gaming packages, writes Universal Blue in the announcement. “Instead of each distribution maintaining its patches and struggling with fragmented hardware support, improvements can now be shared across the entire ecosystem,” it states. The group has already set up a GitHub page.

“More time to play”

On its website, the Open Gaming Collective (OGC) summarizes its mission as follows: “Distros can now focus on the features and user experience that make them unique, instead of repeatedly doing the same tasks. In short, we all have more time to play.”

As concrete examples, the Open Gaming Collective mentions unified support for features such as Secure Boot and controller support, including steering wheels, for instance. The OGC configuration is to be used first in the gaming-focused Bazzite. For game developers, consolidating features could make it easier to release their games natively for Linux. Currently, the compatibility layer Proton is often necessary to run titles developed for Windows on Linux.

Linux for Gaming

Linux has been becoming more attractive and popular as a gaming platform for several years. The release of the Steam Deck with SteamOS, based on Linux, has given the operating system a significant boost. Overall, the proportion of Linux gamers remains comparatively small despite the upswing: 3.58 percent of Steam users play on a Linux system, with more than a quarter of them using SteamOS. A disadvantage of Linux as a gaming platform continues to be that the anti-cheat systems of many competitive multiplayer games do not support Linux systems.

On the other hand, there is good news for Linux gamers from GOG: the DRM-free game store is currently looking for a new developer to bring the GOG Galaxy client to Linux. So far, the client for the DRM-free game store is only available on Windows and macOS; independent clients are still necessary to use GOG on Linux. This could change soon.